Great Venison Cooking

After you have field dressed your deer, you’ve got to skin it before you can quarter and process the meat. This video will show you how. Or, read on for detailed instructions.

Skinning a Deer: Video

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How to Skin a Deer

In the field, you removed all the internal organs. But there is a little further prep work you need to do before quartering it. The deer needs to be hung up, skinned, and the forelegs removed. All of this can be done with a knife, but I also use a pair of limb trimmers and a bone or hack saw for quicker work.

You hang the deer from its hind quarters, so you will need a gambrel and pulley system, which you can find at any hardware store. Before I hoist the deer, I lay it on the ground and make a cut through the skin, starting on the inside thigh and going down toward the ankle. I angle the cut so as to be on the outside of the ankle when I get there in order to avoid the thick hairy area know as the tarsal gland (this is very important because the glands produce a wicked scent and the deer pee on this hair to help scent their surroundings, so meat that comes in contact with it will taste awful).

Once you have made that cut, go below the ankle and cut through the hide all the way around the lower leg. Don’t cut through the long Achilles tendon. Now you are ready to pull and cut the skin away to expose the tendon coming off the ankle and heading to the hoof. Free the skin, pulling it back toward the deer’s body.

Repeat on this process on the other side.

Now you can put your gambrel between the leg bone and the tendon.

Hoist the deer high enough so that the head isn’t touching the ground. If it is a small deer, hoist high enough so the tail is at eye level.

Skinning prep cuts

You will end up pulling the skin down from the tail toward the head. It is easier if the release cuts are made ahead of time, before the skin is hanging down over the the deer’s head! From your field dressing cut along the chest, continue that cut as far up the neck as possible. At the base of the head, make another cut across and around the neck. This will free the skin from the neck once you get there. Make a cut through the hide from the front ankle down the inside of the leg till you meet up with your field dressing cut.

Cut the lower front legs off

This can be done with a knife, working through the ankle joints then bending the leg back to break it free. A quicker way is if you have a good set of limb trimming loppers and just cut right through the leg at the joint.

Skinning

Now you are ready to skin the animal. It helps to have a buddy, but you can do it alone. Skinning is easiest when the hide is warm, but can still be done when cold. When skinning, pull the hide off as much as possible avoiding using the knife except to free it up where it gets caught.

Start with the hind legs. You should have it started already, so just grab the hide with one hand and pull downward, using the knife to free the hide where necessary. Do both legs until you get to the rump.

Once you have reached the rump, grab the tail and cut along the underside of the tail where it meets the rump, cutting through the bone but not all the way through the tail. Pull the tail downward and the skin from the rump should start pulling away. Once you have the hide pulled off the rump and the leg hide and rump hide are now one big piece, use both hands and pull down toward the neck. Most of the hide will come free. You may have to do a little knife work along the abdomen where the field dressing cut is.

The shoulder area is probably the trickiest. You will have to just work patiently, pulling the hide with one hand and cutting with the other. Pull the hide inside out over the leg, freeing with the knife as you go along. Repeat on other from leg. Pull the remaining hide off the neck.

Remove the head

If you plan on using the neck as a whole roast you need to remove the head. If you plan on trimming as much meat as possible from the neck for ground venison, then this is unnecessary.

Working a knife through all the meat and soft tissue, run a cut through the neck as close to the skull as possible. Once you have reached bone you can remove the head one of three ways: Use the loppers to cut through the neck bone (my preference) Use a bone saw to saw through the neck bone Cut into the joint as much as possible with a knife, then twist the neck around until it breaks. You can then cut the ligaments off the joint and it will fall free.

Make sure all hair is off the deer and dry out the insides with paper towels. If the inside was contaminated by a gut shot or you nicked the bladder or stomach during field dressing, pour some apple cider vinegar in the body cavity, wipe it around with a wet paper towel. Finally, wipe with dry towels. This will reduce bacteria and also reduce and gamey flavor.

Now your deer is ready for quartering.